New World - Totto Land - Whole Cake Island.
"Mama, shouldn't we be doing something about this?"
Perospero, Big Mom's eldest son, held up the newspaper with his unusually long tongue hanging out as he spoke. The headline screamed about Shiki's declaration of war. Shiki's plan to destroy the East Blue was insane. So crazy it almost seemed impossible to pull off. But as one of the Four Emperors ruling the seas, were the Big Mom Pirates really going to just sit back and watch everything unfold without getting involved?
Hell no.
Pirates might not be able to form alliances easily, but they could definitely take advantage of chaos on a grand scale. The New World was great territory, sure, but if they could dominate an entire sea and become true rulers of one of the Four Blues? Why the hell not?
Ambition was something pirates never lacked.
Big Mom, who'd been lying sideways on her massive custom sofa, slowly pushed her grotesque, bloated body into a sitting position. The furniture creaked under her weight.
"Shiki, huh..."
She seemed lost in thought, probably remembering the old days when they'd both served in the Rocks Pirates, back before everything went to hell at God Valley.
"I never thought he would stay quiet for so long just to drop a bomb this big... but I like it. I like it a lot."
"So... are we going, Mama?"
The question came from Katakuri, one of the Three Sweet Commanders. He was probably the most famous member of the Big Mom Pirates aside from Big Mom herself, the man they called "perfect," the only sibling that everyone respected and looked up to rather than just feared.
Big Mom turned her gaze toward the window, staring out as if she could somehow make eye contact with Shiki across the vast distance separating the New World from Paradise.
"I'm Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors of the Sea. You think I'm gonna run over there uninvited like some desperate rookie?" She snorted. "Not happening. If that guy wants my help, he can send a proper invitation."
Her children exchanged glances but said nothing. When Mama made a decision, that was the end of it.
---
New World - Wano Country.
A similar conversation was taking place in Kaido's fortress.
King the Conflagration stood before his captain, watching as Kaido chugged sake directly through medical IV tubes like some kind of demented hospital patient.
"So Shiki finally couldn't hold back anymore, huh?" Kaido rumbled between drinks. "Declaring war on the whole damn world. Did he send us an invitation?"
"No, Governor-General."
"Arrogant bastard, same as always."
"So... should we—"
"We're not going," Kaido cut him off. "But..." His expression turned contemplative, a dangerous gleam appearing in his eyes. "If Akainu gets pulled away from the New World to deal with this mess, I wouldn't mind storming Mary Geoise and causing some chaos. Keep your eyes on the situation."
"Understood."
King bowed and departed, already making mental notes about which forces to have on standby.
---
Somewhere in the New World - The Moby Dick.
A young man with distinctive spiky red hair stood nervously before the entire assembled Whitebeard Pirates. He was clearly a representative from the Red Hair Pirates, and just as clearly out of his depth.
"This is the letter the captain asked me to deliver. He wrote it himself." The messenger held out several pages of folded paper. "I don't know what's in it, but he said it's really important."
"Gurararara! He only sent you? Just one person?" Whitebeard's laugh boomed across the deck.
"Yes. I'm new to the crew, so I wanted to make myself useful."
"What's your bounty, kid?"
"Ninety-four million berries."
Marco, standing nearby, had to suppress a smile. In the New World, a bounty under one hundred million barely qualified you as a threat. This kid was basically still a rookie.
Without even unfolding the letter, Whitebeard tore the pages into pieces.
"Wait! What—"
The messenger stared in shock as Whitebeard shredded what he'd called an "important letter" without even glancing at it. The torn pieces drifted to the deck like snow. But there had been two or three pages! Whitebeard hadn't even flipped through them. He obviously didn't read a single word.
"There's really important information in that letter!"
"If it's so damn important, he should bring some good booze and tell me himself. What's the point of sending some rookie with a few scraps of paper?"
The messenger, his name was Rockstar, just stared at the pile of torn shreds scattered across the deck. He didn't even know what to do. This wasn't how he'd expected this to go. At the minimum, shouldn't the man have at least read the letter before getting angry?
Tearing it up without even looking felt like a deliberate insult. Was this some kind of workplace hazing for being new? Or was Whitebeard seriously that offended just because his bounty hadn't broken a hundred million yet?
Sure, in the New World, anyone under a hundred million was basically a nobody. But he was representing Red-Haired Shanks, another Emperor of the Sea, someone on Whitebeard's level.
"Get lost."
Whitebeard's tone made it clear the conversation was over.
Rockstar felt rage building in his chest. Part of him wanted to explode. But Whitebeard, despite being hooked up to countless IV tubes and medical monitoring equipment... despite looking like a patient who should be in intensive care, just sitting there radiated an overwhelming presence.
The sheer weight of the man's will made it impossible to even voice those harsh words.
In the end, he left.
After the Rockstar was gone, Marco walked over and looked down at the torn letter pieces.
"What was he thinking? Pops can't read, but he insisted the letter be handed directly to him. Pretty clumsy attempt at provocation, if you ask me."
As the ship's doctor and the most educated person on the Whitebeard Pirates, he was usually the one who received written correspondence, translated it, and relayed the information to Whitebeard. But this messenger from Shanks' crew had insisted on handing the letter directly to Whitebeard himself, claiming it contained information only Whitebeard could see. And because they didn't want to embarrass the kid in front of everyone, they'd let him try.
The result had been entirely predictable.
"Pops, Shiki sent an invitation a while back."
"What kind of invitation?"
"Something about a plan to destroy the East Blue."
"Ignore him."
Marco nodded. That was about what he'd expected.
---
Rockstar reported the outcome of his mission exactly as it had happened, minus any editorializing about how shitty the outcome had been.
Shanks wasn't surprised by any of it. After hearing the full story, he started preparing to set sail.
"You're really going to meet Whitebeard in person? Right now, with everything going on?" Beckman asked while lighting a cigarette.
"It can't be helped. Old men are stubborn like that. Besides, it's been a while since I last saw him, might as well treat it like catching up with an old friend. Oh, and make sure to pack some of that wine from my hometown in the West Blue. The good stuff."
Beckman looked at his captain's serious expression and sighed, smoke curling from his nose.
"Honestly... why are you getting so involved in another crew's business? Or are you planning to try convincing Whitebeard not to team up with Shiki? Because that's obviously not going to happen. Those two hate each other."
He didn't really understand why his captain was so invested in the whole situation with Ace and Blackbeard, but as first mate, when the captain gave orders, they got carried out. Simple as that.
Shanks saw that although Beckman was complaining, he was already moving to prepare for departure. He smiled and looked toward the eastern sky.
The blazing sun hung high above them, but its path would inevitably carry it toward the western horizon. The peak had passed. What remained was just sunset, then darkness.
---
Marine Headquarters - Marineford.
The movements of Whitebeard and Shanks naturally set off alarm bells throughout Marine Headquarters and the World Government. With Shiki's declaration of war looming, if two Emperors got involved, the entire world could erupt into chaos. Upon hearing that Whitebeard and Shanks were planning to meet, Sengoku felt a migraine coming on.
"Are those criminals really planning to cause trouble at a time like this?"
"Bwahaha! Relax, Sengoku!" Garp said cheerfully, munching on rice crackers. "It's just like before, if Whitebeard ever wanted to cooperate with Shiki, news would've surfaced years ago. Those two can't stand each other."
"I'm not worried about Whitebeard," Sengoku replied, rubbing his temples. "I'm worried about Shanks. That man has no fixed territory and wanders all over the place. Who knows what he's really planning?"
"Worried about his safety?" Garp asked with a grin.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'd love nothing more than for those two to start fighting each other," Sengoku said flatly, setting down the intelligence report he'd been reading.
"Forget about them for now. How are things progressing with the Warlords?"
Kizaru, sitting nearby, glanced at his watch in that lazy way of his. "Ohhh, it's already past two in the afternoon, Fleet Admiral Sengoku~"
"Right. Time to get moving then."
Sengoku stood up, but instead of heading toward the door, he walked directly over to where Garp was sitting.
Garp looked up. "Hm?"
A vein bulged on Sengoku's forehead. "If you want rice crackers, eat your own! Those are mine!"
He snatched the bag of rice crackers right out of Garp's hands and stormed off with it.
Garp blinked in surprise.
Kizaru and Aokiji just shrugged. They'd seen this same scene play out countless times before.
"He steals my snacks and runs..." Garp muttered. But he was already rummaging through drawers and cabinets, quickly locating his newest secret stash.
"Oh-ho, fresh stock. Want some?"
He held up the bag, looking at Kizaru and Aokiji. Both Admirals hesitated for exactly half a second before walking over. Each grabbed a pack and started eating without a word.
Soon the Fleet Admiral's office was filled with the rhythmic crunching of rice crackers being consumed by three of the most powerful men in the Marines.
"Speaking of which," Aokiji said between bites, "according to our intelligence, your grandson should have reached that area by now. Is that going to be a problem?"
Among the higher-ups in the Marines, it wasn't exactly a secret that Garp's grandson had become a pirate.
When Luffy first set sail, Aokiji got dragged into an all-night drinking session where he served as Garp's emotional dumping ground. The old man had ranted for hours about his failures as a grandfather, how his son had gone off to start a revolution, how his grandson got brainwashed by "that damn brat Shanks" into becoming a pirate, and how it all ultimately came back to Roger for starting the Great Pirate Era in the first place.
After a night like that, it was pretty much impossible not to know about his troubled relationship with Luffy.
Kizaru, playing the role of concerned colleague, perked up his ears.
"That damn kid..." Garp's hand slowed as he reached for another rice cracker. Clearly, anything involving Luffy could still shake him. "Whatever. They're all criminals anyway."
"Oh my, my~~" Kizaru drawled, adding fuel to the fire with his lazy tone. "But what if he joins the Golden Lion Pirates? What then?"
Aokiji's expression froze. He'd been planning to hint at the same thing, but leave it to Kizaru to just stab straight for the heart without any subtlety whatsoever. Of course, Kizaru made it sound like an idle question, as if he was just thinking out loud. They'd already received intelligence that the Straw Hat crew's ship had been spotted on Skypiea, possibly right at the Golden Lion Pirates' main base. Which meant only two outcomes were likely: either Luffy joined Shiki's crew, or he got destroyed trying to resist.
Either way, it wouldn't be good news for Garp.
As for defeating the Golden Lion Pirates? That possibility didn't even enter anyone's mind. Sure, Luffy had talent, but he was what, seventeen? Eighteen at most? The idea of some teenage rookie taking down a legendary pirate like Shiki was so absurd it wasn't worth considering.
Garp snorted, white breath puffing from his nostrils. "The fate of criminals is none of my concern."
His words came out steady enough, but his trembling hands betrayed him.
Aokiji shot Kizaru a look that clearly said: You started this mess, you deal with it.
Kizaru just shrugged. It wasn't his problem.
Aokiji felt his irritation spike, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The room continued to echo with the sound of crunching rice crackers, but the atmosphere had turned heavy. Nobody wanted to be the one to break the silence.
Thankfully, a Marine soldier burst through the door, inadvertently rescuing them all from the suffocating tension.
"Report!"
The soldier pushed the door open and immediately felt a chill run down his spine. But it vanished so quickly he thought he'd imagined it. Before he could fully process what had happened, Kizaru had already transformed into a beam of light and materialized directly in front of him, one hand casually resting on the soldier's shoulder.
"What is it? Perfect timing, let's discuss this in my office."
The soldier felt a bizarre mix of honor and panic. I'm standing shoulder-to-shoulder with an Admiral!
But remembering the urgent nature of his report, he forced himself to remain focused. "I need to report directly to Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Where is the Fleet Admiral?"
Only then did he notice the main chair was empty.
"Go ahead and report. We can relay the information," Aokiji said.
The soldier didn't question it. After all, while one of the three men present was "just" a Vice Admiral, everyone knew Garp's status could rival even an Admiral's.
"According to our latest intelligence, the Grand Line is experiencing unprecedented upheaval..."
The soldier launched into his report: multiple warships had been dispatched to suppress the Sky Route to Skypiea; numerous well-known pirates had been spotted converging on the flying island; and Shiki's plan to destroy the East Blue was causing massive disruptions throughout the first half of the Grand Line.
When he finally finished, the expressions on the three men's faces were complicated, to say the least.
"Oh my, my~~" Kizaru couldn't help but sigh.
Although the report had glossed over specific details in just a few sentences, the estimated number of pirates heading to Skypiea had reached one hundred thousand. And that wasn't even a complete count, just the ones using the Sky Route. There were other ways to reach Skypiea: bubble-coating ships at Sabaody Archipelago, or anywhere else with the necessary technology. The reported number was likely just the bare minimum.
One hundred thousand pirates. That was a terrifying force.
Who would've thought Shiki's influence was still this powerful after all these years?
"Truly a legendary pirate," Aokiji muttered, shaking his head.
He'd encountered Shiki before, of course. All three current Admirals had joined the Marines five years before Roger's execution. Each of them had participated in the Battle of Edd War, and later in the legendary battle when Shiki invaded Marineford alone to challenge Sengoku and Garp.
Back then, they'd been young, Marine rookies witnessing the strength of a true monster firsthand.
More than twenty years had passed since then. Time should have eroded the world's memory of him. Yet his actions could still rally this many pirates to his banner...
His rallying power exceeded the number of new Marines recruited annually. That was genuinely disturbing.
After the soldier finished his report and hurried off to his next task, Kizaru quietly returned to the sofa and picked up his half-finished bag of rice crackers, having lost his chance to escape the uncomfortable situation.
The three of them continued crunching away in silence.
Nobody spoke, offered opinions, or moved to relay the intelligence to Sengoku.
It was as if they were competing to see who could finish their rice crackers first.
Kizaru munched carelessly. Aokiji chewed under the weight of tension. Garp ate with a swirl of complicated emotions churning inside him.
Crunch...